Clermont County latest to plan suit against Cardinal Health over opioid crisis

Friday

Jul 14, 2017 at 4:17 PMJul 14, 2017 at 5:42 PM

Marla Matzer Rose The Columbus Dispatch @MarlaMRose

Clermont County has become the latest government to announce a plan to sue wholesale drug distributors, including Dublin-based Cardinal Health, as it faces a costly public-health crisis caused by opioid abuse.

The southwestern Ohio county on Thursday joined Scioto County and the cities of Dayton and Lorain, which all had separately announced last month that they have sued or plan to sue distributors of powerful prescription painkillers, alleging a failure to properly monitor shipments to Ohio communities and to report spikes in those shipments.

At the end of May, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced a civil suit against five manufacturers of painkillers — but not the distributors. He left the door open to suing distributors but said Ohio's legal case is strongest against drugmakers.

Clermont County, like Scioto County, has retained the law firm of Greene, Ketchum, Farrell, Bailey & Tweel of Huntington, West Virginia. The firm is involved in similar litigation in West Virginia.

"As a county, we have spent millions of dollars over the last several years addressing this crisis," Clermont County Commissioner David Uible said in a statement. He said the county's funds "are not sufficient to address this crisis," adding that the county has one of the state's highest per-capita rates of opioid abuse.

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In a phone interview, Clermont County Commissioner David L. Painter said the county would put money secured from distributors toward drug-abuse education and prevention, while also using some to help offset the public costs of dealing with the crisis.

Cardinal Health, the state's largest company by revenue, is one of three major companies that control the majority of drug distribution nationwide. The other two are McKesson, based in California, and AmerisourceBergen, based in Pennsylvania. The three companies all recently reached multimillion-dollar settlements with West Virginia in opioid-related litigation.

Cardinal spokeswoman Ellen Barry said, among other things, that "the people of Cardinal Health care deeply about the devastation opioid abuse has caused American families and communities."

She added that the company does not promote or prescribe prescription medications and that Cardinal thinks the lawsuits are "misguided and will do nothing to stem the crisis."

"We will defend ourselves vigorously in court and at the same time continue to work, alongside regulators, manufacturers, doctors, pharmacists and patients, to fight opioid abuse and addiction."